Zara Is A Phenomenon In The Textile Industry Marketing Essay

Zara Is A Phenomenon In The Textile Industry Marketing Essay Because of its history and leadership long time in its industry, zara is one of the largest internal fashion companies, its belong to inditex one of largest distribution groups in the world. The company particular business model is customer-based and includes the design, manufacture, distribution and sale of it products through an extensive network of group owned shops. Its first store featured low-priced lookalike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. The store proved to be a success, and Ortega started opening more Zara stores in Spain. During the 1980s, Ortega started changing the design, manufacturing and distribution process to reduce lead times and react to new trends in a quicker way, in what he called instant fashions. The company based its improvements in the use of information technologies and using groups of designers instead of individuals. Zaras business model can be broken down into three basic components: concept, capabilities, and value drivers. Zaras fundamental concept is to maintain design, production, and distribution processes that will enable Zara to respond quickly to shifts in consumer demands. Josà © Marà ­a Castellano, CEO of Inditex stated that the fashion world is in constant flux and is driven not by supply but by customer demand. We need to give consumers what they want, and if I go to South America or Asia to make clothes, I simply cant move fast enough.    This highlights the importance of this quick response time to Zaras operations. Marketing is another key element in the production of fast fashion. Two approaches are currently being used by companies as market strategies; the difference is the amount of financial capital spent on advertisements. While some companies invest in advertising, fast fashion mega firm Primark operates with no advertising. Primark instead invests in store layout, shop fit and visual merchandising to create an instant hook. The instant hook creates an enjoyable shopping experience, resulting in the continuous return of customers. Research shows that seventy five percent of consumers decisions are made in front of the fixture within three seconds. The alternative spending of Primark also allows the retailer to pass the benefits of a cost saving back to the consumer and maintain the companys price structure of producing garments at a lower cost Production. Generally speaking we can say Zara`s competitors are all quite big competitors that have actually reached international markets, all starting from spain with huge local distribution, that makes the market quite inflexible, as they apparently are doing the same, and that customers are stable, may be because of the nature of the product.(Diana)p37 Zara produces of-the-moment fashion and has developed a very successful vertically integrated company which can design, manufacture, and distribute garments to retail stores in as little as three weeks. Zaras target market is comprised of urban, fashion-conscious consumers who shop frequently for the latest trends.    Currently under debate is a proposed upgrade to the POS system throughout the Zara chain.    With over 950 stores, this would be a huge undertaking for Inditex, Zaras parent company. The current DOS-based system meets the needs of the company, and despite some of the benefits of upgrading, it is best to continue with the current system in place. (Fortune magazine) Zara derives its competitive advantage from an astute use of information and technology. All of its stores are electronically linked to the companys headquarters near La Coruna, a midsized city on the northwest coast of Spain. Store managers monitor how merchandise is selling and transmit this information, as well as customer requests, to headquarters. The role of the store manager goes way beyond that of Gap and HM, says Wills of Goldman Sachs. Together with trend-spotters who travel the globe in search of new fashion, store managers make sure their designers have access to real-time information when deciding with the commercial team on the fabric, cut, and price points of a new garment. Sustain Competitive Advantage The concept of Quick Response (QR) is used to create new, fresh products while also drawing consumers back to the retail experience for consecutive visits. Quick response also makes it possible for new technologies to increase production and efficiency. The Spanish mega chain Zara has become the global model for how to decrease the time between design and production. This production short cut enables Zara to manufacture over 30,000 units of product every year to nearly 1,600 stores in 58 countries. New items are delivered twice a week to the stores, reducing the time between initial sale and replenishment. As a result, the shortened time period improves consumers garment choices and product availability. The SWOT analysis technique lends itself to napkin planning and snapshot insights. To conduct a SWOT analysis, draw a vertical line in the center of your napkin (or whiteboard or flipchart), intersected by a horizontal line. Now you have four quadrants where youll sketch your companys situation.(Dr. Ralph ) Web catalog sites are essentially wholesale or retail order-taking terminals. Zara is carrying products from dozens or thousands of it parent company inditex. But what is the product? Our own store is the product here. We are building an online brand that we hope will represent the kind of store where people can find and purchase just what they want. We market our product lines through HTML e-mail fliers (see http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/html-email-multi.htm), by pushing the customer to the web site saying, Come here, come to our store out of all the other choices on the Web. We have what youre looking for. One way to look at an online catalog site is as a shopping service that helps our customers find what they want among their carefully selected collection of best-of-class products. Custom services, too, can be viewed as products. One of the keys to success was to define the standard product carefully, clarifying what was included in the standard website, and what items were considered add-ons. but a 12-page website that included a single response form, custom graphic header, background, menu system, certain marketing elements, etc. When zara package its services into clearly-defined bundles, they become a product that is clear to the customer and therefore saleable. Companys service packages constitute the product line. Information products. One of the favourite sites is http://Britannica.com ; the website that includes the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica free to the visitor. What a wealth of material ; a great example of an information product (in this case, a free product). An online newspaper is another example of an information product, as well as our E-Commerce Research Room (http://www.wilsonweb.com/research/). Zara has done a good job by subscribing the encyclopaedia. place Place is supposed to signify the physical distribution channel, getting the goods to the customer. Yes, the Internet is either the point of contact or the point of sale, but the FAILURE to consider the distribution channel dooms many online businesses. In this issue well look at the problems and the marketing decisions that online business people are forced to make. Services are typically delivered digitally online, or with the Internet used to generate leads, and the service being delivered in person by a local vendor. The Eight Essential Types of Internet Promotion 1. Search engines Many people, perhaps even a majority of people, will use search engines and the Yahoo! directory to find what theyre looking for on the Web. So the place to start in promotion is to design web pages that will be indexed well by the search engines, using descriptive titles and accurate META tags. 2. Linking strategies Linking strategies are a second essential type of site promotion. The more links pointing to the site, the more traffic it will experience (and the greater perceived popularity will rank Zara higher in the search engines). Another popular method is to join a banner exchange. For every two banners displayed on the site promoting other businesses, one of Zaras banners will be shown an another member site. The biggest exchange is Microsoft bCentral LinkExchange. http://adnetwork.bcentral.com/. Another important form of linking promotion involves paying affiliates for sales resulting from links to Zara site. 3. Viral strategies An increasingly important process is to design a strategy that encourages others to carry Zara marketing message via e-mail, using their own network of relationships ; and preferably their own resources. This is called viral marketing after the way viruses multiply rapidly in a cell, commandeering the cells resources to do the viruss bidding. The classic example is HotMail.com, a free e-mail system. Each e-mail message (sent by definition to a persons own friends and associates) carries a message encouraging the recipient to sign up for a HotMail account, too. Another example is postcard or greeting cards, each of which carries a message encouraging the recipient to send a card to a friend carrying the siteowners marketing message. If zara can write quality articles, we can offer them to others to use on their websites or in their newsletters, each article carrying a link to Zara website. Public relations to get press coverage is a kind of viral strategy, if the company think about it. 4. Public relations Public relations, the task of getting press coverage, is still a vital type of site promotion. News release picked up by several print and/or Internet publications its will get a tremendous boost in traffic, all for free, letting the news periodicals network carry our marketing message. Of course, nothings really free. We will need to have a truly newsworthy event, contest, free service, chat room ; or something ; or no decent publication will consider it news. Coming up with free services and events isnt inexpensive, but the ensuing publicity can be excellent ; we may get an unbiased editorial recommendations that we couldnt purchase for any amount of money. 5. Traditional media Dont discount traditional media in promoting our website ; news releases, of course, as well as paid advertising. A very effective way to promote our site is to place a small display ad in a targeted trade publication, offering some teaser copy and pointing readers to our URL or an auto-responder e-mail address for more information. This way the site serves as an online brochure, providing full information to interested shoppers day and night. A no-brainer is to make sure that all our companys literature, cards, letterheads, and envelopes carry our website URL. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395906253/wilsoninternetseIf were immersed in the Internet, we may have forgotten that most people still get the majority of their marketing messages through traditional channels. 6. E-mail Publishing The company has to be married to an e-mail publication. The website is the shy partner who passively waits for people to come to him. But the e-mail publication is the bold, active partner who goes out to where people are and invites them to come meet her groom. Together they make a great couple. E-mail : publishing is primarily a way to conserve the people who have shown some interest in the business by coming to zara website or responding to one of the offers. One of the highest priorities of the website MUST be to get the visitor to sign up for the free newsletter or discussion list or updates publication. Offer a variety of inducements ; entry into a contest, a free gift, a free coupon ; whatever it must do to insure a steady stream of subscribers to the newsletter. Once they are subscribers ; if we give them content they enjoy and learn from ; theyll stay with Zara for years, and we can gently build their trust month after month. When theyre ready to make a purchase, the site is at the top of their mind, and theyll probably buy from Zara. With so much SPAM (unsolicited e-mail) abounding, its too easy for recipients to mistake the promotion for just another ad, and unsubscribe forever. Though an occasional promotional e-mail may be okay, the marketing messages in the context of ne ws and helpful information is much more effective, and builds loyalty that can never gain by just bombarding the customers with ads. 7. Networking An extremely important way to promote the website is through networking. Networking isnt quick, but its the basis of relationships that will grow your business through word-of-mouth over the years. 8. Paid advertising It is notice that most of the first seven types of Internet Marketing can be done in-house relatively inexpensively (with the possible exception of search engine positioning). Of course, the company may be able to find a marketing firm to which it can outsource some of these functions, but it can probably do a fine job in-house ; after all, its our business, and staffs are the one who can promote it most effectively. But there comes a point that to get wider exposure, to break into the consciousness of the thousands of people who never haunt it end of the Web, the company may need to resort to paid advertising. Paying high traffic sites or Internet publications to include a graphic or link that will channel large numbers of people to the site. There are several popular forms of paid advertising, with new approaches cropping up all the time: Pricing Strategy as Part of Zara Internet Marketing Plan Pricing Approaches Of course, pricing isnt just scientific. It has a lot to do with your particular niche on the Internet, and how youve determined you can best succeed. Here are some demand-oriented approaches to pricing: Skimming pricing. When offering a new or innovative product it can initially charge a high price, since the early adopters arent very price sensitive. Then lower prices to skim off the next layer of buyers, etc. Eventually, the price will drop as the product matures and competitors offer lower prices. Penetration pricing. Zara have to set a low initial price in order to penetrate quickly into the mass market. A low initial price discourages competitors from entering the market, and is the best approach when many segments of the market are price sensitive. Prestige pricing. Cheap products are not taken seriously by some buyers unless they are priced at a particular level. Demand-backward pricing is sometimes used by manufacturers. First, they determine the price consumers are willing to pay for a product using an approach such as Make Your Price Sell! (http://sales.sitesell.com/myps ) automates. Then they work backward through the standard markups taken by retailers and wholesalers to come up with the price they can charge wholesalers for the product. Bundle pricing is offering two or more products together in a single package price. This can offer savings to both the buyer and to the seller, who saves the cost of marketing both products separately. And the customer is willing to pay more because he perceives that he is getting a lot more, even though the cost to the seller may not really be that much more. Here are some cost-oriented approaches to pricing: Standard mark-up pricing. Typically a manufacturer marks his price up 15% over his costs, a wholesaler 20% over his costs, and a retailer 40% over his costs. The retailer gets a larger markup based on the idea that, since he is closest to the end user, he is required to spend more services and individual attention meeting the buyers needs. Cost-plus pricing adds a small percentage to the retailers costs and cost plus 5% sounds so modest in ads for new cars! Ah! If only it were that simple. 🙂 Experience curve pricing assumes that it costs a company less to produce a product or provide a service over time, since learning will make them more efficient. Then there are competition-oriented approaches to pricing: Above-, at-, or below-market pricing. Certain stores advertise low cost or discount pricing. Others price at the market, while others deliberately price above-the-market at premium prices to attract prestige buyers. Loss-leader pricing works on the basis of losing money on certain very low priced advertised products to get customers in the door who will buy other products at the same time. Flexible-price policies offer the same product to customers at different negotiated prices. for example inditex, give out its product at negotiated prices. Many B2B sales depend on negotiated contracts. 8 Ways to Learn about the Site Visitors According to Dr. Ralph we can learn about our visitors in a number of ways. But before we look at any of them, our main concern has to be the issue of privacy. One of the visitors concerns is the steady erosion of his privacy. 1. Monitor E-Mail Inquiries and Complaints Its vital that the company find a way to monitor e-mail inquiries and complaints from the site visitors. Even if Zara have an employee handle this e-mail for the company, have them print out an extract of key questions and complaints so Zara can keep it finger on the pulse. Dont look at these e-mails as enemy fire; these are the friends wholl help Zara improve it site. When it spot a question occurring again and again, its a sign that it need to deal with it more fully or more visibly on the site. And, it tells Zara whats important to about visitors. 2. Provide Online Questionnaires Zara might want to create an online questionnaire with which it can gather information from the site visitors. After enough people have completed the survey, it will typically download the data file, import it into Microsoft Access or Excel, and conduct an analysis using queries or cross-tabs, and graphing. An increasing number of companies are offering survey services online. 3. Send Out E-Mail Questionnaires The strength of online forms is the ease with which the data can be collected for analysis. The downside is that online forms are essentially passive, they wait until someone comes to them. E-mail questionnaires, on the other hand, are active; the recipient can fill it out and reply without having to open a web browser. But e-mail questionnaires can be more difficult to analyze quickly. A special program must be developed to harvest information from fields delimited by brackets or some other symbol. If the recipient places an answer outside of the brackets, or gives the wrong kind of answer, the survey may have to be discarded or manually scored. E-mail questionnaires, however, may be the survey of choice because of their immediacy and ease in sending. 4. Use Cookies Strategically Another information gathering strategy is to use cookies. Cookies are tiny pieces of information that can be placed on the site visitors web browser for retrieval later. These are widely used to display banners, keep track of shopping carts, remember passwords, track affiliate referrals, etc. Lets say zara want to learn how many of the people who responded to a certain ad actually made a purchase. One way to do this is to create a special webpage URL for the ad. When someone clicks on the ad URL, they come to the special page where JavaScript code places a cookie on their web browser indicating that they came from a certain ad. When a purchase is made in the site ordering system the cookie (if any) is retrieved and a record is made of the source of the sale. 5. Examine Order Files Another way to learn about visitor shopping patterns is to analyze individual order files as well as summaries. Once a visitor places an order or provides an e-mail address, any information collected about that individual can be used to develop a personal profile. 6. Provide Site Personalization Larger company sites are employing database tools that harvest information about visitors by what products they look at or purchase, which banners they click on, etc. Then this data is merged with other databases providing demographic information by ZIP code, etc. to give a customer profile. 7. Study Your Traffic Logs Considerable data about the customers and their surfing habits can be gained from studying the traffic logs for the website. These can tell us how the visitor came to the site, browser used, route used to surf through the website, most popular pages, domain name of visitors, and much more. 8. Employ JavaScript on Your Site In addition to placing cookies, JavaScript can be programmed to harvest information contained in the visitors web browser, such as plug-ins available, the resolution of his computer monitor, operating system used, and version of browser. The information learn from each of these methods can help Zara gain a clearer picture of those visiting it site. Use the data with integrity; adhere to the privacy policy. But use what we learn about our visitors to fine-tune the website sales and revenues, and we will come out ahead. Careful attention to customer data is a major factor in distinguishing successful from unsuccessful sites. Conclusion As a conclusion, the key to successes of this strategy is the internet to see how best I can figure out a consistence marketing plan. The models are based only in empirical example, and this is likely to be a limit on the ability to generalize for such a complex environment. The plan has been able to analyze competition in the digital marketing plan which point out that Zara has been doing well despite some irregularities and little changes that need to be done. Zara has proved strong in the competitive arena of its business activity; due to it unique way of doing things which gave it a competitive advantage. Globalization challenged companies with the proposition of no national and organizational boundaries; some tools like internet were created in this time change and instability for companies, new technologies has been created in a desperate hurry to cover companies requirements. And Zar It comprises the study of different authors perspectives who have contribute in the digital marketing plan or have done a paper work on Zara clothing.

Jewish religion Essay

Judaism is the Jewish religion. It is one of the oldest of the great world religions, and is the mother religion of both Christianity and Islam. Judaism was not founded by one towering personality, as were most other religions. Abraham and Moses are not regarded as founders. Abraham was the â€Å"father of the Hebrew people† and Moses was the â€Å"law-giver†. With the destruction of Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem in 586 B. C. began the scattering of the Hebrews over many lands. From then on Judaism developed as a religion without the priestly class of the ancient temple. Moreover, Judaism is one of the oldest beliefs that are still observed and practiced up to the present and considered as one of the first recorded â€Å"monotheistic† faiths. The Jewish’s values and history are the main part of the foundation of different Abrahamic religions like Christianity, Islam, Samaritanism and the Baha’i Faith. In 2006, Judaism’s devotees are approximately 14 million that makes Judaism faith as the eleventh-biggest organized religion globally. Unlike with other religions, Judaism is totally distinct in such a way that its â€Å"central authority is not vested in any person or group† but it abides in its writings and traditions. This would mean that Judaism religion does not have a head or a leader that oversees them but they rather obey what is written in its writings and traditions. Moreover, the Judaism church is continually bound to a number of religious practices and beliefs, specifically its belief that there is one, omnipotent, omni benevolent, transcended omniscient God who made the heavens and the earth and continually have its control over mankind. The conventional Jewish belief stated that the God who made the universe had made a covenant with the Jewish people only and gave his laws and commandments through Torah. Judaism‘s belief and practices are focused on these laws and commandments (see Asheri, Michael. Living Jewish: the Lore and law of the Practicing Jew, 1999). According to Jewish law, anyone who has a Jewish mother counts as a Jew, even if he or she is not religious. Many Jews do, however, actively follow the religious practices of Judaism. Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, beginning some 3,500 years ago in the Middle East. Today, there are about 18 million Jews. They live all over the world, but mostly in the United States, Europe and Israel. There are many different groups of Jews with different ways of practicing their faith. The main groups are Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Jews (see Jacobs, Louis. The Book of Jewish Belief (Behrman House, 2000). The intents of this paper are to: (1) know what Judaism is and how it started; and (2) to compare Judaism to Christianity. II. Background According to the Jewish holy books, the first Jew was a man called Abraham, who is known as the father of the Jewish people. He was the leader of a group of nomadic people, called the Hebrews. At that time, the Hebrews worshipped many different gods. Abraham taught his people that there is only one God and that they should worship only him. Jews believe that God made a covenant, or agreement, with Abraham. If Abraham and his people worshipped God and lived good and just lives, God would look after them and give them a land of their own to live in. This was the Promised Land of Canaan (see Shenker, Israel. Coat of many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life (Doubleday, 2001). The Jews settled in Canaan but centuries later, famine forced their descendants to move to Egypt in search of food. They worked for the Egyptians but were treated like slaves and their lives were extremely miserable. God remembered his promise to Abraham and sent a man called Moses to lead the Jews to freedom. Several times, Moses asked the Pharaoh to let the Jews go, but each time he refused. Only after God sent ten terrible plagues to Egypt did the Pharaoh change his mind. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt and into the desert. After 40 years of wandering, God guided the Jews back to the Promised Land (see Prager, Dennis, and Joseph Telushkin. Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The Jewish scriptures are called the Tenakh. They are divided into three parts—the Torah (5 Books of Teaching), the Nevi’im (21 Books of the Prophets) and the Ketuvim (13 Books of Writings). The initials of the three parts—T, N and K—give the word Tenakh. For Jews, the Torah is the most important part of their scriptures because it contains the rules that teach Jews how to live their lives. These are the teachings that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Jews’ journey through the desert. They are summed up by ten rules, or commandments (see Musaph-Andriesse, R. G. From Torah to Kabbalah: a Basic Introduction to the Writings of Judaism (Oxford University, 1998).

How are evil and the supernatural presented in each of the stories? Essay

‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Squaw’ are both short stories from the sub-genre of horror fiction. How are evil and the supernatural presented in each of the stories? Compare and contrast the two stories. Horror stories have common ingredients, including, a ruined gothic castle with monsters such as vampires and werewolves. Horror stories generally play on fear of the unknown. They cause the reader to be afraid of what they are going to see that they don’t expect. When horror stories are also short stories, they benefit from this. A larger amount of dramatic events can take place in a short space of time. If the main character of a horror story that wasn’t a short story died very near the end, the whole story would be ruined. This means that readers of short horror stories are shocked much more. In the two stories, evil and the supernatural are not presented in the way that they are normally in short stories. They are presented in a way to make the reader think about them, and how they can arise. This is unlike most horror stories, in which the aim of the story is just to shock and scare the reader. The two stories are entitled ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Squaw’. The tiles of stories can tell the reader about them. The Black Cat is a short story about a man who is driven to murder by his cat. The Squaw is also a short story, about a man who kills a kitten, and is then killed by its mother, in an act of revenge. The titles mean that the reader to has impressions of what the stories are about as soon as they start reading them. The title, The Black Cat gives the reader a feeling that the story is going to involve evil or magic, in some way, because black cats are commonly thought of as bad or evil, and as witches in disguise, however, when the reader reads the title, The Squaw, they are given a much less vivid impression. A squaw is an American Indian woman or wife, but most people don’t know this. This means that the reader doesn’t really know what to expect from the story. I believe The Black Cat to be better titled than The Squaw, because it is more deep and meaningful. It is deliberately intended to make the reader think that the black cat is bad, but it is the cat that turns out to be the victim. This illuminates how the reader will always make the assumption that a black cat will be evil. The cat in The Squaw is said to be like a squaw, and I believe that this is the only reason it is titled like this. The beginnings of stories are important for giving the reader an impression of what is to come. The beginnings of the two stories do not give particularly much atmosphere of the supernatural. At the beginning of The Squaw, the narrator just accounts about how he and his wife are on their honeymoon, and how they meet Elias Hutcheson. The reader is given no indication that it is a horror story throughout the beginning of the story. Similarly, at the beginning of The Black Cat, the reader does not receive much of an impression of the supernatural. The character just seems to introduce himself. The only clue the reader receives about the supernatural is the way the cat is introduced into the story. At the beginning of The Black Cat, there are a few clues about what will happen later in the story. The narrator accounts about how the events that happens in the story â€Å"have terrified-have tortured-have destroyed me† He also states that he is going to be hung, whereas the beginning of The Squaw provides the reader with no clues about what happens later. The beginnings of the stories are quite different. The opening of The Squaw is just like a normal non-horror story and the opening of The Black Cat is a character confiding in the reader about what has happened to him and how he has been affected. The atmosphere and setting give the reader a strong background feeling about the story. The typical setting of a horror story is a lonely, dark place, like a ruined gothic castle. The setting of The Black Cat is not much like this. It is mainly set inside the man’s head, and so does not contain many references to what happens outside in the world. The reader is not given much information about where the man lives, and the actual physical setting of the story. This is because the story is intended to primarily portray the emotions of the character over his actions. The setting of The Squaw is very different to this, although it is also unlike that of a conventional horror story. The setting is very normal and pleasant. The narrator and his wife are on their honeymoon, and the reader is told how the town is very pleasant, because the sun is shining, and the couple are just lazing about enjoying themselves. It comes as a complete shock when the kitten is killed. After this happens, it is still unlike a normal horror story setting, until right at the end, when the cat appears and kills the man. The setting of The Black Cat adds to its overall effect very well, because the story is supposed to show his emotions, and it is a story about a man telling the reader how he became evil and mad, as does the setting of The Squaw, which shows that evil can occur in any place, not just in a typical gothic horror story setting. Tension is usually viewed as the most important element of the traditional horror story. It keeps the reader interested in the story, and causes them to be scared of what may happen next. Tension is not used to full effect in the two stories. The reader is not given much information in either of them to trigger their imagination and get them thinking about what will happen next. For example, in The Black Cat, the main events happen totally unexpectedly, without any tense build up. In The Squaw, there is a bit of tension, that concerns the reader wondering what the cat is going to do to the man, but there is only one very big event at the end of the story, also without much built up tension. Poe definitely aims to shock the reader in The Black Cat, rather than surprise them. A surprise is when something unexpected happens, but it is usually a good event, and the person it happens to often has some kind of a clue that it will happen. A shock is when something very unexpected happens. It is almost always a bad event, and the person always has no clue whatsoever that it will happen. The reader is shocked on multiple occasions, such as when the narrator cuts his cat’s eye out, when he hangs the cat, and when he murders his wife. I believe that Poe never surprises the reader, and that he has no intention of doing so. In The Black Cat, because the reader anticipates the man to do something evil at different points, this affects their feeling on the evil inside the man. They expect the man to commit more acts of evil, but at the same time, they are not sure whether the source of evil may change to become the cat. On the contrary, Stoker aims to surprise the reader. The reader knows throughout the story that the cat is going to get its revenge some way. When it kills Hutcheson, this is a surprise, because the reader expects it to happen. It may be considered as a bad event, thus being a shock, but it may also be considered a bit like a good thing in a way, because he deserved to die. This feeling of someone deserving an act of revenge adds to the horror theme of the story. The only shock in the story is when the kitten is killed. For these reasons, the usage of shock and surprise in the two stories is very different. The two men who kill the cats in the two stories have very important roles in the plot, as do their characters. The narrator in The Black Cat seems very emotional. He often confides in the reader about how The Black Cat drives him to insanity, whereas Elias P. Hutcheson is not given a particularly prominent character, and the reader does not learn much about his emotions. In The Black Cat, the narrator is used as the main character, to confide in the reader, about his experiences. In this way, the author brings about the questions about evil and the supernatural. In The Squaw, Hutcheson is instead used as a tool for the plot to be developed. He doesn’t have any visible emotions shown. He seems only to be in the story to kill the kitten, and then to be killed at the end. The reader feels sorry for the narrator in The Black Cat, because he is driven to madness and he is very hopeless, but they also feel hatred for him because of all of the cruel things he does. The cats are probably the most important elements in both of the stories. In The Black Cat, the cat is initially introduced amongst the narrator’s other pets, and in The Squaw, the cat is introduced when the characters see it with its kitten. Unlike at the beginning of The Squaw, at the beginning of The Black Cat, the reader is given a small hint of the supernatural powers of the cat, in the title, because black cats are said to be bad luck, and witches in disguise. When the cat is introduced, it is written in italics. This gives the reader an obvious clue that it plays a big part in the story. In The Squaw, the reader is given no hint whatsoever that the cat has any supernatural powers. It is only at the very end, when the cat kills the man that the reader believes that it may have something out of the ordinary about it, although it never truly seems to have any actual supernatural powers, other than the way it strangely strives to get its revenge, and the way it has the intelligence to kill the man in the way it does. Later on in The Black Cat, the reader is given a larger impression that the cat is supernatural; by the narrator acting like it is driving him to madness. The image of the cat ends up on the wall of the burned down house, and another cat comes into the story, that seems to really be the same cat, and it also has a mark that turns into the shape of the gallows. These things would not happen if there was not an intention of the writer for the cat to be somehow supernatural. On the other hand, in The Squaw, the reader is not given very much of an impression that the cat has any supernatural powers until at the very end. When the cat tries to follow the man, the reader just believes it to just be a normal cat, because it does not succeed. The only hint the reader gets at this point is the amount of hatred the cat seems to show. The author comments on how Hutcheson and the narrator’s wife notice this. This is also seen in how the cat tries so hard to reach Hutcheson, to take its revenge, by desperately trying to jump up a huge wall that is seen as totally impossible by the other characters, which are not maddened by anger. As the story of The Black Cat progresses, the reader thinks of the cat as both a victim of evil, and a source of evil. At the very beginning, the reader believes that the cat will be the source of evil, because black cats are generally thought of as such. When it’s eye is cut out, this is when the reader begins to think of it as a complete victim, but as the narrator becomes more demented, they begin to think of it as somehow causing him to do this, and as having some sort of special power. In The Black Cat, the cat is used as a tool to bring out the narrator’s character, whereas in The Squaw, the cat is used to provide a victim and a source of evil, to make the reader think about the true meaning of evil. The way the reader recognizes the two stories can vary a lot. They are primarily about the two cats, and whether or not they are the sources of evil in the stories. This means that the reader’s understanding of the stories entirely depends on what they think of the cat. Both of the stories explore the meaning of the nature of evil. The nature of evil is very disputable in both of the stories. They are primarily about the question of whether it is the men or the cats that are the sources of evil. They show that it is really the men who are actually the sources of evil. The stories both have this theme, and both illustrate the men to be the sources of evil, making them similar. In The Black Cat, the man is somehow provoked by the cat to become evil, but in The Squaw, the man is the one to initiate the trouble between himself and the cat, by killing the kitten, meaning that the ways the two men come to be the sources of evil are different. Usually in horror fiction, it is the stereotypical character, like the cat that is the source of evil, and the people are usually victims. The two stories show that these are misconceptions. They are deliberately controversial. The narrative structures of the stories greatly affect the way in which the reader understands them. As does The Squaw, The Black Cat has a first person narrative. Because of this, the reader can realise the character’s feelings and emotions to a much greater extent than if it had a third person narrative. This affects the reader’s thoughts about the evil of this character. Because they can realise his feelings, he can tell them why he did things, and his justifications for them. They can then judge for themselves whether he has good reason to do things, and whether or not he is evil. The first person narrative gives the reader an insight into the mind of the evil man. This helps to show them that evil occurs for a reason, and that people are evil because of something that has happened, or a motive that they have. It also implies that evil people are not just the bad things in stories for people hate without thinking about why they evil. Poe tries hard to show this in his story. The first person perspective of The Squaw also contributes to the evil in the story, but in a very different way. The narrator seems quite neutral and unfazed throughout the story. He is nothing like a typical horror story character, and he makes it seem very unconventional. He helps to make the source of evil disputable. His character makes the reader think about what the real evil in the story is. The narrator’s character helps the implication that a source of evil is not always where it first seems to be. The evil may be in something or someone that is never expected at first, and that it is not always in the clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½d, expected place. The viewpoints of the authors are important in understanding the stories, because they tell us the reasons for the stories being written, and how the authors understand the natures of evil and the supernatural. I believe that Poe understands that evil and the supernatural can affect anyone, and that no one is born evil and I believe that his purpose in writing The Black Cat was to give an insight into the mind of someone who goes mad. I believe he wanted to show that people are driven to do evil things, and they do not just suddenly turn evil and crazy. He wanted to show that evil people are people too, like everyone else. This does not fit the general trend in horror stories very well. Usually, the evil character is just there to be someone for the reader to dislike and fear. The reader is never usually shown any reason for the person to have become evil. Stoker believes that evil is not always how and where it seems, as Poe also does, and I believe that he wrote The Squaw to show this. This fits the horror story genre in the same way as The Black Cat does because it is not like most horror stories. Like The Black Cat, it depicts a different meaning to evil and the supernatural, and it doesn’t rely on clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s. I believe that evil and the supernatural are well presented in the both of the stories. Both of the authors wrote the stories to give a deeper meaning to the way they are depicted in horror stories. Neither of the two stories is typical of the horror story genre. They are both deliberately meant to show the different ways that evil and the supernatural can exist, that are not usually depicted in horror short stories. I believe The Black Cat to be the more effective as a horror story. The way it depicts the mind of a madman is more effective in horrifying the reader. His feelings and reactions give the reader a chilling and disturbing insight into the mind of an evil, twisted murderer.

Essay about Nominalism - 1456 Words

Nominalism The great revival of philosophical and theological study which the thirteenth century witnessed was conditioned by the influence of Aristotle. The theory of the universe propounded by the Stagirite had to be reconciled with the traditional Platonic-Augustinian realism. This Thomas Aquinas undertook to do, following, Aristotle as closely as possible. Duns Scotus, on the other hand, attempted to maintain the ancient realism, while supporting it by modern or Aristotelian methods. Interests and tendencies, however, came up in his work which drove his disciples away from his position. The growth of empirical research and psychological analysis together with the new activity of the reason in the epistemological field on the†¦show more content†¦In respect of the theory of cognition, where Duns Scotus had placed between the perceiving subject and the object perceived a sensible species and an intelligible species, Ockham considers these as superfluous machinery. Objects call forth sense-impressions in us, which are transmuted by the active intellect into mental images. These images are thus a product of the intellect, not species which flow from the object into the intellectus possibilis. The reality of these images is thus, in the modern use of the terms, not objective but subjective. This is true not merely of the terms of first intention formed directly from sense-impression, but also of the terms of second intention, i.e., the abstract terms which take note of common attributes, or universals. These latter correspond to a tendency of the human mind, which can not perceive individuals without at the same time attempting to form a general concept. A white object simultaneously suggests abstract whiteness; an extended, related, enduring object forces the conception of extension, relation, duration. The result of this line of reasoning is the absolute subjectivity of all concepts and universals and the limitation of knowledge to the mind and its concepts-alth ough these are real entities because of their subjective existence in the mind, reproducing the actual according to the constitution of the mind. Thus Ockham is really the pioneer of modern epistemology. TheShow MoreRelatedDifferences Between Platonism And Nominalism And Explain How They Function As Philosophical Ideologies1137 Words   |  5 Pagesthey right? What does it mean to say that something ‘instantiates a universal’? In this paper I will explain the notion of universals, and argue why Platonism is the more correct view, as opposed to Nominalism and Fictionalism. I will also clarify the major differences between Platonism and Nominalism, and explain how they function as philosophical ideologies. Platonists or â€Å"realists† in other terms claim that abstract objects are physical; that they exist in some palpable way. 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In the process, â€Å"He extolled the separation of church and state and denied all temporal power to the pope, thus shattering medieval Christianity’s ideal of unity† (Pinckaers, 241). The Nominalism that Ockham extolled gave power to the individual and proposed a morality based on oblig ation (Pinckaers, 251). This developed intoRead MoreEssay about Analysis of Faulkners As I Lay Dying876 Words   |  4 Pageshaving words is as good as having no words because the characters in this book, especially the members of the Bundren family, use words that obfuscate their true emotions. Faulkner uses his characters to portray speech as just another factor of nominalism and allows only silence to present the truth. Addie Bundren, even after death, is not completely silent through the trip to Jefferson. Her presence is an incessant reminder that words are â€Å"just shape[s] to fill a lack† (pg 172). 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